Minute event. Well, thank you for coming out what i want to try to do is look at the cold war it is worth baring in mind that there were actually periods of time that caused your fore bearers more anxiety and in some cases with much greater reason to do so. And won the 1952 and 1956 election. And these are the years that represent a high point. Thinking about the cold war and the United States its worth bear in mind that the legacy and the history of the cold war was one of much of americas 20th century. And the forces in the soviet union was not during the period that you tend to think is the cold war which is from 19464748 and and much of eisenhowers much of the people in the army who served with him are being framed by the fact that america is one of the coalition of powers that went to war with the communists in the russian civil war. The idea that russia represented an ideological challenge to the United States begins there. The cold war is at its hottest between the United States and russian and soviet communists between 1918 and 1920. Its in part the after echo of that. And that was certainly awe view in the soviet union. And they woman standing be on the basis of what the United States had done in their eyes in the late 19 teens and thats because that was when american soldiers were fighting the communists. Lets start at looking at that view of the cold war. The cold war starts then and it characterizes in many the 20s and 30s. The Second World War is a traumatic interlude and interlude thats formative for american history. And the conflict tension and confrontation between the soviet union and the United States. And those that fought germany regarded the war i use the term because thats what they called it and b because they were very much not it. They regarded this as a continuation of world war i. They knew they had been encouraged by german intelligence. They had sent him to russia in 1917. They had given him passage out of switzerland. In the spring of 1918 and as it were the background in 1918. And for people that are strategic thinkers and of course you must bear in mind that eisenhow eisenhowers immediate background to world war i is he had been in the Army Planning division for war. It was the idea of germany and the soviet union. Germany and russia. It doesnt work. Theyre, in a sense, as we see often in the present day, if you intervene on behalf of it and they were a week divided and unpopular force it doesnt bring you any success because you apply Strong Military of your own. So the actual intervention failed but it did contain soviet intervention. Particularly incidentally by the french poland pushes out and defeats a russian invasion and soviet invasion in 1920 and the soviet plan that had been to use the russian evolution is the first stage for a rapid take over of europe fails. And theyre not really tremendously interested in the outside world. Which creates a problem. And is also the worlds leading creditor nation by far. In the 1920s and 30s its born by the surviving another western democracy that had been part of the coalition that defeated germany and intervened in the russian civil war they were interested in trying to restrain radicalism in their backyard. It was to deal with left wing peasants. And motivated against the shipment of arms supplies to the American Forces fighting the soviets and its worth bear in mind some americans will tell you that vietnam is a unique experience. Its complete rubbish compared to 1919 in the sense that vietnam was actually a toy town in terms of the debate. This is one of the factors that encouraged hitler, the ultimate revisionist, the man who wishes to completely tear up the international order. Both are antidemocratic and opposed to western capitalism and they find common interest. Their a deologists are different. And they find common interests in combining in 1939 and its no accident that the powers that won independence or liberty all fall victim to either germany or germany in the soviet union in 1939 and 1940. And you get what has been feared. Germany and the soviet union are allies because germany and the soviet union are alies the british plan to beat germany by a long blockade isnt going to work. And on top of that theyre also allied to japan. So theres a coalition thats truly of frightening proportions. Nobody knows what its going to lead to. What it appears to lead to is the collapse of the world order. Spends most of his early life going into kansas. It goes to the army. Top of his class and goes to westpoint. And sees no military service. He saw his military service and he goes into training. Its very important. He spends a lot of staff in the most active of military commands which is that in the philippines and hes number two under mcarthur and then he is a very talented man and does well in the course of the general college and comes top there and hes put in the division and for the army, like for the navy, what goes completely wrong, its not pearl harbor. The situation has already collapsed prior to that. What goes totally wrong is 1940. 1940 is American Foreign policy and that of course is the collapse of france and the near collapse of britain. This is really frightening for the americans. Because what it means and it appears obvious that theyre going to collapse and negotiate a terms of settlement. What it means is that essentially the United States is going to be on its own. And at that point, the situation is quite troubling. The german navy is being built up under plans to be ready for a major war with the United States in 1944 and aircraft carriers. That was the plan including that. And theyre planning bases in the islands and the americans get really worried. If you go, to this day theres a museum and has the fire plans for the enormous governments installed in 1940 and 41 on the Eastern Shore of the chesapeake. Big railway guns. And if they try to attack the American Atlantic fleet one of the most important pieces, Congress Agrees to fund the build up of a navy because obviously the french navy is now out of the equation. Italy on top of that has entered and britains navy is taking a pummeling. So the idea is to have a navy equivalent in size to that of japan and germany. This is a formidable program. Its a program which incidentally comes on tap and really in 34 and 44. And the new jersey class of battleships takes a long time. So the American Military is preparing for a really difficult scenario. And how she would describe it. Hitler i might use the term mad to describe hitler but that would be unfair. And apart from his brutal ideas of the racial recasting of the world which is a form of geopolitics, he attacks the soviet union. People will say to you its a terrible mistake. Nobody has ever succeeded. Well, you have to be more careful about that. After all they have fought their way to moscow. They did it in 1617 and in 1812 but the attack on the soviet union destroys the cohesion of the block that he has formed. And he is responsible for the invasion. And succeeded. Eisenhower by 44 is actually and a role and the most important area command. And they were moving france and germany and making rapid progress in Eastern Europe. What is interesting and this is an aspect of the American Military and British Military and indeed the soviet military played a very little role in the policy making they follow the constitution. Its the American Government that sets American Military policy and not the offices. Again the contrast is noticeable with japan where theres a military government. A military government from 1940 to 44. Falls after the loss of cypan and then a new military government falls in and of course in germany the generals try to overthrow hitler in 1944 unfortunately make a bad job of it. And as it was the interaction of the military leadership and politics playing a big role. Eisenhower has no big views in the sense he does what he is told on the strategic questions. And i suppose that you could say as to whether they should invade. Whether they should in particular land on the coast of yugoslavia in order to preempt the soviet advance. Churchill was already by 1944 convinced that what we call the cold war, what we call the cold war, he was convinced it was just going to start all over again. And by 1944 the british sent troops in there and trying to take over the government. Roosevelt thinks this is totally appalling. Churchill who had been secretary during the russian civil war had actually taken a key role, like much of churchills military career, but had been for the russian civil war. He sees himself taking part in the same rule. Ultimately, the americans take a benign view of stalin. Roosevelt is convinced he can talk to stalin. Hes convinced he can get stalin to be reasonable. He is a total fool. The stalin tricks him repeatedly tricks him over the fate of poland which is the major issue. This map is rapidly transformed into a map which soviet forces are in control and Eastern Europe. Against that background it is not really surprising that the communist governments are in power. Eisenhower by now has become the army chief of staff staff. He has to respond to this situation. He is in a difficult position. The American Public want him out of the Second World War. They want to have the troops back home. The troops have signed up for the duration, or they volunteered for the duration. There is an enormous demobilization of the American Military immediately after the war. The number of divisions fall rapidly. Warships fall rapidly. This is encouraging, the new military technology the bombs dropped in japan in 1945, it appeared to prove that america could actually ensure its interest in a very inexpensive way. I suppose one of the keys to american policymaking and the entire period of 1945 onwards, its that the americans wished to have a situation which they could be a great power, relatively inexpensive lee. That may be going a little too far, but the point is, the American Public did not want to fundamental duration of their Living Standards or of their constitution to match the situation of being as it were, prepared for World War Three. No one asked the soviet population what they wanted. Population what they wanted so it is just as well not to. Stale and goes on to hand his executions right up to the end in 1953. Eisenhower is in charge in the army, of an army that is the mobilizing, an army that is in many senses, many of the commanders are discontented. There is no equivalent to the socalled revolt of the admirals and the navy. The crisis linked to the suicide, the navys real fury jacked in the late forties to make right for the Strategic Air command. Eisenhower faces a similar scenario and eyes and higher comes to new york and actually becomes president of columbia university. He comes to new york and he leads both the political world and the military late 1940s. 1948, the soviet takeover czechoslovakia. Combined with the fact that the british and the french have been pressing the americans to take over security roles and combined with the berlin blockade, the attempt by the soviets to drive western forces out of berlin, it leads to the americans to determine to take a more active role in International Relations and specifically to the formation of nato in 1949. That is significant because it brings with it an american guarantee of security of western europe and the guarantee which is substantiated by the deployment of troops. On the basis of that, eisenhower gets a new role, becomes the First Military commander of nato forces and his vital job is to make these forces corporal and draw up plans for war, for how to conduct war in the conflict of the soviet union. Not easy at all because you are dealing with so many inponderables that have been increased because the soviets have exploded nuclear devices. They have attracted some weapon buying. You can relatively easy make an atom bomb and turn it into a weapon you can use. What is clear is the american monopoly of Nuclear Weaponry has ended and is ending, that the american monopoly of Delivery Systems is going to end very rapidly. The soviet is building long rage bombers range bombers. Designed to bomb the United States. The question is, what to do about this . Eisenhower, in his last years spends a lot of time on military planning. He has opportunities to see the deficiencies, problems and opportunities posed by politics. Eisenhower is a brilliant political general. The korean war is a Coalition War because it is the United Nations army, there are americans there, but there are also a lot of other people, the british, people from a whole host of other countries. Macarthur really tees these people off. What every country does, explains its own history in its own terms, what americans do not realize, one of the reasons macarthur had to go was because truman was told it was impossible for british troops to serve under macarthurs control. Because there cannot run coalition all warfare or eisenhower was brilliant. He understood the opportunities provided by a large number of troops in western europe, who even as they are fighting quality could be relied upon to do something to oppose the soviets, but also the problems posed that these other countries have different political roles, particularly the tension he will see in the suez crisis of 1956, eisenhowers anger of british and french going to war with egypt is already there. He is already, like most policymakers, angry with the british and french because they are devoting so much of military resources to maintain their authority in their colonies. As far as eisenhower and american policymakers are concerned, this is not the way to confront communism, etc. There is already that tension. It is not my job to talk to you about geopolitics. One has to be careful when coming to this country. Your president is going to come to my country and tell us we have to stay in the european union. [laughter] mr. Black you think about if the british Prime Minister was to come to america until you you all needed to give up guns. You would be very offended. Eisenhower becomes the republican candidate in a very interesting fashion. He is the only former general to become president in the 20th century. It had been a common practice prior to that in american history. Many american president s both wellknown president s, people like ulysses s. Grant and Andrew Jackson and georgeas there have been many president s who have been generals, no fewer than four Union Generals before the civil war to become president. This practice was gone. Result had a military background that his military background has and not that of being a general and experience is that of a Civil Servant politician in the navy and not in admirable. It is rather interesting to imagine what he wouldve been like as this. The idea of having a general as president did not seem that implausible to people at the end of the 1940s and beginning of the 1950s. America had fought the war with a civilian male population, many of them turned into soldiers. Itd been a national experience, in terms of americas war singularly benign, inclusive experience. Eisenhower and if its from that and with his war record. There was also the danger that there was another general who wanted to be president , yet again, macarthur comes up repeatedly emerges in eisenhowers career. There were civilian politicians as well, but none of them had traction, and also the republicans, having lost elections repeatedly, republicans had not won an election for over two decades at the president ial level. They had this did encourage them to think that they needed to reinvent the political lexicon. Eisenhower comes to be president at the beginning of 1953, at a time in which the cold war is at a very high point. With the encouragement of stalin the North Koreans had invaded the south, it proved much harder. Despite naval superiority, despite deploying considerable troops, it had proved possible to stop the communist forces, but not to actually defeat them. That was a shock. It encouraged a debate. As to whether the chief priority should be containment, which in a sense had become the policy of the truman government, or whether it should be rolled back, rollback the idea of pushing back the communist powers in some way and by some fashion. Eisenhower was to reconsent julys nten [ he was not to endorse rollback. He regarded rollback is far to janie 42 dangerous in an atomic age when one wouldnt wow michael wt might happen. Bear the burden and there was no sign that they were going to stop. Eisenhower uses the atom bomb and the american ability to drop it in large numbers he threatened use the atom bomb if the war didnt shown in 1953, much stronger an in the vietnam war. And it succeeds. That is one of his great foreignpolicy successes. To put the Korean Peninsula into a kind of long phrase, not a very attractive outcome. Certainly an unattractive which provides an effective containment. Remember, an effective containment which contrasted with the failure of the common tang in china and contrasted with the french about to fail in vietnam, laos and cambodia. Eisenhower urges the french to fight on in indochina. The french are still in charge all of the European Countries were bust because of world war ii. The french say they will go on fighting if the americans will commit troops. Eisenhower decides not to pay de